Doubles team Vicky Brook ’12 and Sarah Lederhandler ’10 placed second in the doubles tournament, falling in the finals to the No. 1 seed, 8-4.

Lederhandler was ecstatic following this weekend’s strong showing.

“We came in expecting to do well, even though this was our first tournament with the entire team together,” Lederhandler, the senior team captain, said. “We can definitely use this tournament to give us confidence for the rest of the season.”

The Bulldogs claimed four of the eight quarterfinal spots and two of the four semifinal spots as well. Jessica Rhee ’10 and Stephanie Kent ’12 each made the quarterfinals.

Brook made it to the semifinals by defeating No. 4 seed Michelle Sammons of Purdue 6-2, 6-4 before she was unable to overcome the No. 1 seed Yevgenia Stupak of East Tennessee State during an early morning match on Sunday.

Elizabeth Epstein ’13 won two matches on Saturday to advance to the semifinals, as well, where she later lost to Columbia’s Nicole Bartnik.

The Cissie Leary Invitational was the first tournament attended by the entire team, so the Bulldogs’ success was extremely encouraging; it showed that their hard work in practice is paying off, players said.

“I didn’t go in with any expectations,” said Brook, “I just went knowing that I really put in the work during practice.”

With strong showings across the board, the Bulldogs are brimming with confidence as they head into the ITA All-American tournament on Friday. The tournament will be held in the Riviera Tennis Club in Southern California.

“I think we had gone into the tournament with the mentality that we would do pretty well, and I feel like once we had some competition that really got us going,” Rhee said. “We will continue training hard and go in with the same mentality that because we put in the time, we can expect these same types of results.”